SECOND DIVISION OF PEACH SHOOTS. 61 



is of a slender form, and the blossom-buds at b 

 have evidently fallen off without setting, which 

 shows a want of vitality in the tree. A shorter 

 and more sturdy form, then, might have been 

 chosen to represent the class, and then it would 

 probably have appeared where the fruit had been 

 attached. This one has not elongated much, the 

 leaf-bud c marks its extreme development ; at the 

 same time it is on the point of extension, and will, 

 by the end of the summer, remain a short bearing 

 cluster shoot, all the portion below c being, however, 

 bare ever afterwards. It is certainly a good class 

 of shoot, and should not be suppressed in orchard- 

 house pruning, and rarely, unless a foreright, in 

 out-door work. It will not grow strongly in any 

 case and is, therefore, valuable for bearing next 

 season. It has but the single defect of an inch of 

 unfruitful wood. Not to notice it would be to 

 leave amateurs in ignorance of what the numerous 

 " clusters " look like after the season is over. 



7. The Fruit Spray (fig. 7). — This class is in- 

 cluded by Dubreuil under the head of " proper 

 fruit shoots," which he says are " from 4 inches" 

 in length ; but from other specimens which were 

 photographed for this work, and which were taken 

 from strong-growing trees, it was seen how this 

 type passes, like the others, into Class No. 2 when- 

 ever the blossom-buds are arranged in groups, with 



